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North Korea vows to kill South's former president as Moon meets Trump in Washington

North Korea has threatened to impose the death penalty on the South's former president Park Geun-hye over an alleged plot to assassinate Kim Jong-un. The threat undermines Seoul's recent efforts to improve relations.

Efforts by the new South Korean administration of President Moon Jae-in to build bridges with the regime in Pyongyang have suffered another blow after North Korea announced that it intends to carry out the summary execution of Park Geun-hye, the South's former president, for allegedly plotting to assassinate Kim Jong-un.

A statement issued by North Korea's Ministry of State Security on Wednesday said that Park and Lee Byung-ho, the former head of South Korea's national intelligence agency, would "meet a miserable dog's death at any time, at any place and by whatever methods from this moment on."

The statement, reported by the state-run Korea Central News Agency, also demanded that the South Korean government immediately hand over Park and Lee to North Korea on the grounds that they had plotted to carry out "state-sponsored terrorism" against the leadership of the North.

Should the pair not be handed over, they would be the subject of "summary punishment without advance warning," while any others confirmed to have taken part in the plot would meet a similar end, it said.

The threat posed by N. Korea will be a major topic of conversation when Trump meets Moon in Washington

'Assassination plots'

In May, Pyongyang claimed to have foiled a CIA plot for a North Korean who had been "ideologically corrupted and bribed" to assassinate Kim with a "biochemical substance" and accused the US of colluding with South Korea to conduct state-sponsored terrorism. North Korea paraded a man that it claimed was the agent sent to kill Kim, claiming he had confessed to having been convinced to take part in the assassination attempt while working abroad. There has been no further information on the fate of the man.

South Korea has dismissed the North's claims of a plan to eliminate Kim.

"It's ridiculous," Rah Jong-yil, a former head of South Korean intelligence, told DW. "This regime is accusing Park and Lee of planning to kill Kim with no evidence at all and completely overlooking the appalling things they have done through the years."

North Korea is accused of kidnapping many hundreds of foreign nationals, of bombing civilian airliners and murdering members of the South Korean cabinet in October 1983, Rah said. They imprison thousands of their own citizens for the slightest infraction and thought nothing of using a chemical weapon against Kim's half-brother, Kim Jong-nam, in a crowded airport in Kuala Lumpur earlier this year, he added.

"And not once have they ever apologized for these things, or even admitted them," he said.

"To claim that the South tried to kill Kim is fantasy and, I would suggest, only reflects Kim's growing sense of insecurity," he added.

That suggestion is supported by a recent report by the South Korean intelligence agency that the North Korean dictator is "extremely nervous" about plots to assassinate him.

As well as being fearful of an attack by gunmen on the vehicles that he uses to travel around the country, Kim is also constantly worried about an air strike, officials of the National Intelligence Service told a restricted session of the South Korean parliament in early June. Kim has taken to travelling in a well-protected convoy at dawn and switches between different subordinates' cars instead of always travelling in his own Mercedes-Benz.

Kim's concern for his own safety has soared since it was reported earlier this year that the US and South Korea are setting up a special forces unit that would be tasked with eliminating the North Korean leadership in the event of war breaking out on the peninsula.

Members of the US Navy's Seal Team Six - which conducted the raid in which Osama Bin Laden was killed – allegedly took part in exercises in March with South Korean special forces. The US reportedly made it clear that the units were training to carry out a "decapitation operation" designed to kill the North's leaders and destroy the regime's ability to continue fighting.

North Korea's proclamation coincides with Moon's visit to Washington, where he is holding two days of talks with President Donald Trump.

The US leader has also been the target of the North's vitriol in the run-up to the meeting, with state-run media likening Trump to Adolf Hitler and the US president's "America First" policies to Nazism.

An editorial published on Tuesday by KCNA claimed that Trump's "two-nation strategy" towards the Korean Peninsula is "based on Hitler's dictatorial policies that separate people from their peers, justifies oppression and creates an atmosphere of fear in American political, social, media and information circles."

Trump's policies on immigrations are "no different from the racist policies of fascism" and "denigrate the history of America," it added.

Trump has been the target of the North's vitriol in the run-up to his meeting with President Moon

Continue to reach out

Yet Toshimitsu Shigemura, a professor at Tokyo's Waseda University and an authority on inter-Korean politics, believes that the hugely popular Moon will continue to try to reach out to the North with offers of dialogue and assistance.

"Despite this threat to kill his predecessor, I expect Moon will again offer to hold talks with the North, will offer assistance and other ways of building bridges," he said. "This is the policy he outlined in the election campaign, it is a philosophy he has had throughout his political career and it would be hard for him to change now."

Polls suggest that the South Korean people support efforts to develop relations with the North, with a recent study suggesting that as many as 80 percent of South Koreans want the two sides to negotiate directly.

Shigemura says such attitudes are naive.

"I do not think these people realize the sort of regime they are talking about," he said. "I think they have forgotten all the provocative acts the North has carried out."

But he does not believe Moon's repeated olive branches will ever be grasped.

"The North has rejected all efforts from the Moon government so far, and that is because they want more concessions and money from the South and, secondly, they very much want to bring the Moon administration down and to sow turmoil in the South," he said.

Seoul may have radically changed its attitudes towards the North in recent months, but Pyongyang is still intent on destroying its neighbor, he added.

ICBM threat and North Korea's overall military strength

Major achievement

In early June 2017, North Korea test-launched an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) for the first time. Testing an ICBM marked a major military achievement for Pyongyang and a serious escalation of tensions with the United States and its allies in the region, particularly South Korea and Japan.

ICBM threat and North Korea's overall military strength

Trouble with warheads

At the time, defense experts said the ICBM could reach as far as the US states of Alaska and Hawaii. However, it was unclear if North Korea can field an ICBM capable of carrying a nuclear warhead on its cone that could survive reentry into the Earth's atmosphere. North Korean state media claimed the ICBM was capable of carrying a "large, heavy nuclear warhead" to any part of the United States.

ICBM threat and North Korea's overall military strength

Pyongyang's nuclear tests - six times and counting

The ICBM is believed to be a step forward in the North's nuclear program. Despite pressure from the international community, Pyongyang has made no secret of its nuclear ambitions. Alongside its ritual ballistic missile tests, North Korea has conducted nuclear tests on at least six occasions, including one in September 2017.

ICBM threat and North Korea's overall military strength

US running out of patience?

Responding to the first ICBM test with a show of force, the US and South Korean troops on conducted "deep strike" precision missile drills using Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) and the Republic of Korea's Hyunmoo Missile II. In April, the US sent its Carl Vinson aircraft carrier towards the Korean Peninsula, saying it was taking prudent measures against the North.

ICBM threat and North Korea's overall military strength

Testing the boundaries

Ignoring international condemnation, Pyongyang test-launched another rocket on July 28, 2017, just weeks after its first ICBM test. In both of the tests, North Korea used Hwasong-14 missile, but the second one reached a higher altitude and traveled a larger distance than the first one, according to the state media.

ICBM threat and North Korea's overall military strength

Whole of US within range?

Pyongyang conducted its third test November 29, using a newly developed Hwasong-15 missile. US, Japanese and South Korean officials said it rose to about 4,500 km (2,800 miles) and flew 960 kilometers (600 miles) over about 50 minutes before landing in Japan's exclusive economic zone off the country's coast.

ICBM threat and North Korea's overall military strength

One of the world's largest militaries

Apart from a developing missile and nuclear program, North Korea has a powerful army with 700,000 active troops and another 4.5 million in the reserves. It can call upon almost a quarter of its population to serve in the army at any given time. The North's bloated army is believed to outnumber its southern neighbor's by two-to-one.

ICBM threat and North Korea's overall military strength

Vast capabilities

According to the 2017 Global Firepower Index, the North has, as part of a far-reaching arsenal, 458 fighter aircraft, 5,025 combat tanks, 76 submarines, and 5,200,000 total military personnel. The picture above from 2013 shows leader Kim Jong Un ordering strategic rocket forces to be on standby to strike US and South Korean targets at any time.

ICBM threat and North Korea's overall military strength

Enemies all around

Alongside the United States, Pyongyang views its neighbors South Korea and Japan as its two other main enemies. North Korea has used US military exercises in the region as means of galvanizing its people, claiming that the exercises are dress rehearsals for an impending invasion.

ICBM threat and North Korea's overall military strength

Huge, colorful demonstrations of military might

Every year, hundreds of thousands of soldiers and citizens roll through the streets of the capital Pyongyang to take part in the North's military parades. Preparations for the rallies often begin months in advance, and the parades usually mark important anniversaries linked with the Communist Party or Kim Jong Un's family.